It is said to be possible to softmod the 79, but the guys holding that knowledge is making a fortune by not releasing it, (selling chips) and other decent coders/crackers who could obtain that knowledge is not going to release it, probably due to the fact that Maximus etc. deserves some coin for all the great and amazing work they have done for the scene.

But don't get me wrong, it kind of sucks that it has turned into a moneymaking game but they sure deserve it!

atm it is possible to reflash the 79 without passkey if the firmware is pachted with an "anti passkey patch". but for the first time you'll still need a passkey. someone should insert the "anti passkey code" in the smart hack patcher, so that we don't need to patch this manually...

i'm not sure if this is a moneymaking game, rembember the benq was hacked after the 79's and it's possible without modchip (ok, c4eva did this, the passkey was from maximus...)

If you send me your drive I will exchange it for a new samsung MS28 and put your key and spoof the samsung as a 79 hitachi for $75. This includes the cost of the drive and service. Then in the future you just flash the samsung and spoof it as a 79.